Monday, May 26, 2008

Knowing Christ

When one of my sons was younger, he asked me if I knew the famous basketball player Lebron James. I said that I did, much to his delight. I wondered why he was so excited about this, and as
our conversation continued I discovered why. He thought that I knew James personally. I then had to clarify that I knew of him but had never spent any time with him to really know him and
to discover what he’s like personally. I then explained that just because you know about someone doesn’t mean you really know him or her on a personal basis. What about each one of us? In our spiritual lives, do we simply know things or remember stories about who Christ was, or do we honestly know him on a personal, intimate level?

Monday, May 19, 2008

Blue-Collar Nobodies

In Scripture, God has pulled many surprises. The apostle Paul went from being a persecutor and a murderer of Christians to a writer of at least a dozen books of the Bible. Peter went from promising to never deny Christ, to repeatedly doing so, to then becoming the rock on which the church was built. David went from the murder-conspiracy boardroom, to the satisfying of his flesh, to becoming best known as a man after God’s own heart. The motley bunch of men known as the disciples were blue-collar nobodies without proper education or credentials. They were slow to grasp what Jesus was teaching. At one point, Jesus wondered how they could be so dull and dense in their lack of understanding his parables. Yet God took this pitiful bunch and equipped them to carry out the gospel message. It’s because of them that we know it today. As a charter member of the "pitiful bunch" crowd of today, this is proof that there's hope for me (and you)!

Monday, May 12, 2008

Horse, Hope and Heaven

There’s a story about a prize-winning horse that had a disease in its hoof. Because of the severity, the horse’s owners knew it would have to be “put down.” But shortly before this happened, a new invention had been developed: a steel hoof prosthesis that could be drilled into the bone of the horse’s leg. This news changed everything. The prosthesis saved the horse’s life—from no hope to a living hope. This is precisely what mercy does for you and me. Peter shouts it out when he says, “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade—kept in heaven for you” (1 Peter 1:3-4). God Almighty, in his mercy, has provided a way for you to be with him forever. He saw your great need to be saved from evil and knew you were incapable of saving
yourself. In seeing your desperate need, he put his compassion into action by sending his Son to die a death only he could die and to become the sacrificial lamb that would pay the heavy price
of sin in the place of you and me. Our sins can now be forgiven and, by his mercy, we can fully embrace the reality of our eternal heavenly home!

Monday, May 5, 2008

The Elderly Farmer

I once heard the story of an elderly farmer who was known in his small community as the town grump. He was incessantly negative, nasty, and noncompliant to most everyone he met. For
years, area pastors were encouraged to visit and talk with him. One by one they went, but they were unable to change him. Imagine then, the surprise when word got out that this 90 year old farmer had prayed the sinner’s prayer, asked Jesus into his heart, and was now a changed man. How did the gospel finally penetrate his heart? Part of the answer had to do with the farmer’s seed salesman of the past forty years, who for several decades had patiently and methodically cultivated an intentional relationship with the farmer. The cultivating yielded an eternal crop. For me, the story raises a question: With whom is God more pleased: this seed salesman or Billy Graham? It’s clear that God is equally pleased with both of them. As a believer, you are the seed salesperson. You’ve been given a territory that is uniquely yours to “do good works, which God prepared in advance for [you] to do” (Ephesians 2:10). As you travel the streets and roads of your assigned area, your initial job is to simply plant the seed. Scripture says that as you’re faithful in planting the seed, others then come along to water it. Ultimately God himself will make it grow (see 1 Corinthians 3:6).